


Flee

by venefica_aura (crankyoldman)



Series: Psychobabble [14]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alcohol, Gen, Jenova Project, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-28
Updated: 2009-11-28
Packaged: 2017-10-03 22:41:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crankyoldman/pseuds/venefica_aura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ifalna runs into Vincent when he's been drinking a bit much. Territorial gestures.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flee

When Vincent got drunk, everyone in the Mansion knew.

 

Ifalna had found it fun the first two or three times, but somewhere in between meeting his superior officer and unguarded glances in Lucrecia's direction, it wasn't so fun anymore. She wasn't afraid of much of anything anymore; considering she worked for the Planet's biggest evil doers. She knew quite well what Jenova was, but had yet to come up with the courage to...

 

Well, that really wasn't her job. She'd been told. It hurt sometimes, knowing that she was only as good to the Planet as what she'd produce when she got knocked up. By which man? She didn't know yet.

 

She was standing in the library, looking for a cookbook of all things, when he stumbled in. No Lucrecia on his arm, and no Veld either... but they hadn't been speaking to each other for months other than official business.

 

Oh yes, Ifalna knew that little detail. Veld was a terrible liar like that.

 

He didn't notice her at first, talking loudly to himself about whiskey; he wasn't the sanest person she had ever come across. And she was a little batty herself.

 

His blue eyes narrowed at her. "Oh, it's you." He'd been friendly, once, but after she'd dragged Veld to help her pick flowers, he'd regarded her with a certain disdain. It confused her, sometimes, considering the uproar that Lucrecia and he made... only Hojo seemed oblivious to the whole thing, probably the only reason the young man was alive at all.

 

"You're drinking already? It's only nine." He snorted, before flopping on one of the couches. He swung a long arm over his eyes.

 

"I am celebrating. I have been promoted." She smiled, uneasily.

 

"That's good! Congradulations." He lifted his arm momentarily to glance at her and replaced it.

 

"I will still be here, but once this mission is over, I will have an office. Velly says it will be on the floor below his." He snickered. "Bastard probably planned it that way."

 

"I'm happy for you. Maybe I can make you a sandwich?" He growled, a displeased sound.

 

"You are afraid of me, are you not, Iffy?" Lucrecia had given her the nickname, after she'd called her Lucy. Lucy and Iffy, they had been like sisters once. That's how she had ended up in these cold mountains. It's how she ended up sharing a house with The Crisis... how she had terrible nightmares when she let herself sleep.

 

They were going to destroy themselves, and even her good humor was wearing thin.

 

"I am really not so bad..." He was very very intoxicated, for his speech was perfect like he was sober. There were three stages to his debauchery... this was the worst one. Lucrecia was a fool.

 

He shifted, getting more comfortable. "Do you like stories, Ifalna? I mean, listening to them. You seem like the type, a million stories to tell..."

 

"Maybe you should go rest—"

 

"Just shut up. Have a seat, Iffy, I will not bite." Somehow she doubted that. Really.

 

She sat down in one of those overstuffed and comfortable library chairs... only it was anything but. She fiddled with her long hair.

 

"You think he is nice, right? Polite, reserved, all sorts of things you women like." She blinked. This was not what she was expecting... or was it?

 

He barked out a laugh. "Gods, woman, you are naïve. Vincent's the big scary monster, and Veld's the nice gentleman, right?" She hated his drunken laugh.

 

Only he didn't know why she had been so friendly with him. He didn't know how old she really was. Or that... she'd met the subject of their conversation years before, when he was only just a skinny little nothing with a tendency to get into trouble. But Vincent wouldn't get to know that, not the way he was acting.

 

"Where do you think I learned how to be creepy?" He pulled a flask from his jacket. "Maybe I could tell you about my first mission. He was there. He was the reason we did not get our asses killed." He sat up.

 

"Do you know what a sociopath is? Have you ever actually touched him, Iffy? You should try sometime. See what happens." Something told her whatever crazy that Veld had would never scare her as much as that tone Vincent used. They were all predators here, but he, he was losing it.

 

She wanted to cover her ears. She wanted to call him stupid and selfish and just why did this matter?

 

"His eyes look different when it happens, and his voice gets lower. He is a real piece of work under that stuffy personality. So fucking obsessed with order, it almost makes him a berserker. But that is what I am Iffy, and why you will never understand him." She bit her lip.

 

"Leave Lucy alone." She said quietly. He blinked a couple of times, before grinning at her.

 

"She has her hands all over me, not the other way around." She stood up.

 

"I said to leave her alone. She's young. She doesn't know what she's getting into." She was so so old and watching them make these mistakes...

 

"Who the fuck do you think you are? Just... who are you? Where do you get off with this sagely advice—"

 

"That's ENOUGH." She was clenching her fists and glaring down at him, hoping he wouldn't stand up and put her back in her place as small and frightened. Hojo was going mad, Vincent was going mad, Lucrecia was mad... only Bren had any sanity, but that was because of the drugs. They were going to destroy themselves.

 

"Why do you even exist Ifalna?" he said, a low rumble in the back of his throat. Like an animal.

 

She sighed. "I don't know. I don't know why I'm here... I should just leave."

 

"Yes, run away and never come back." Why did she always imagine him with red eyes?

 

"Just so you know, Vincent, I'm not running away. And you have no reason to hate me, so." She started walking out, trying to keep her legs from shaking. She had to get out of here, just for a little while, she would ask Bren and he would let her because he loved her, like a puppy...

 

"It is not you that I hate."

 

When her fingers found the phone, she didn't know why she called him. Monsters and knights and monsters... she was stuck in the middle of the evil forest, with no champion or magic staff.

 

"Hello? Veld? Are you there?"

 

"...Iffy? Do you know how late it is?"

 

"I need you to come here. To Nibel. I need you to... I need to get away."


End file.
